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I have a recital in about three weeks. The song I'm playing is about 4 minutes long. I have the song memorized pretty well and it's all under my fingers. There are a few tricky parts that have me occasionally missing notes but I'm confident I'll get work those kinks out before the recital.

I still can't get through the peice without making at least one or two noticeable mistakes, and it's generally at random places. Does anyone have any advice to help me make the peice more secure? This will be the biggest audience I've ever played in front of so I know nerves are going affect me. So I want to be as secure as possible.

One thing my teacher is having me do is learn the peice with opposite hands (rh and plays lh part, and vice versa). This well help me memorize the song ontop of my muscle memory. Is there any simlar things that I can do to make my peice more secure?

Sit down cold, and play the piece. Anywhere you make a mistake, practice slowly, and with the opposite hands. Later, try starting the piece at that point.

Try starting the piece at different places, to make sure you know it in different ways.

Good luck!

Someone (can't remember who right now) made a comment that I found to be profound.

The comment was to make "safety" zones in the piece. That is, mentally have a few places to "start" if you get lost.

So, what I have started doing is thinking about the piece, looking for some obvious places to make safety zones, and then play from zone to zone. If I get lost, or make a huge mistake, I instantly go to the next safety spot, and play from there.

So far, so good. Although I am a novice with this (as well as the piano), I find it reassuring to know I have a plan to recover and not just melt apart. Seems to help with the nerves, just having a plan.

I have paraphrased the concept, so it the person who woke me up to this can comment/correct what I say, please do so.

This is a problem for everyone, ckcornflake. I definitely agree with Frida and gmm1's advice. Find those spots that aren't working for you, and then find some "starting" places. I also:

--Play it through, stopping at the end of each measure and thinking with my brain (not my fingers) what the next notes are. Finger memory is a sure way to performance disaster.
--Play it e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y slowly from memory.
--Go play for friends or neighbors. Any nervousness you can induce in yourself will help you find the places that will break down under pressure. We always play well at home on our own piano.
--Record yourself. Besides adding pressure, it will help you hear where you need to make small changes in dynamics or tempo.
--Play on the recital piano if possible. Play in your recital outfit, with your recital shoes and hairstyle--anything that might draw your attention away from the piece that night. You don't want to waste any brain power that night on random thoughts about your surroundings.
--Practice messing up and moving on. The most noticeable mistake is one where you stop and go back, so the more you can practice that skill, the better.

Good luck. Let us hear how it went.

Nancy

ckcornflake, try sitting down and closing your eyes and picturing the music in front of you as you play. this will also tune out any distractions that you are facing making mistakes in random places. if it were the same place it would be easy, but i tend to lean towards the distractions in this case. find out what is distracting you and tune it out and totally focus. take a break goto your piano throughout the day and just play it first right out. and focus focus focus.

You could also try stopping the left hand while the right carries on and then get back in with the left a few bars/notes later and the other way round (not so nice if one hand has only accompanying chords, of course). This should give you the confidence to keep up playing with one hand (avoiding dreaded silence) until you reach your next "safety zone" or "entrance point" as mentioned above.